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Tuesday, 8 May 2018

Quotations

"The point is that even far more extensive air strikes would not have changed the outcome of the Syrian war, though they would certainly have escalated it and killed a lot more people. There is a myth, lately adopted by President Trump, that President Obama lost a real opportunity to weaken or get rid of Assad in 2013, but the factors that restrained Obama then apply today with equal force to Trump: it is not possible to get rid of Assad without a wider war and, even if he went, the outcome would be a collapse of the state, as in Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq, producing chaos in which Daesh and al-Qaeda will flourish."

Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, April 15 2018

“We are not led to undo the work of creation or to rectify the Fall. The duty of the Christian is not to leave the world a better place. His duty is to leave this world a better man.”Monsignor Alfred Gilbey

I corrected my mistake - Patrick Cockburn wrote that last month. I cannot understand why intelligent people do not see this obvious truth.I loved Monsignor Gilbey, who had a great influence on me but whom I regret that I rarely met. I recommend you read this interview with him by Sir John Mortimer.